Make sure your iPad is Cell capable. Settings is a good place to look, but also up top near the power button the case will have an area that is slightly different from the rest of the case. That area is the cell antenna area and will be almost a wide as your iPad's back shell.

You do not have to have an active cell data plan for your iPad to receive GPS signals.

If your iPad is not cell capable, then you can tether it with bluetooth to a device like the Garmin Inreach. I have the Garmin Inreach, so I don't really know if other GPS devices offer tethering. Have not looked.

Just make sure that you down load all the maps you need before you leave home. Even if you have a cell data plan, because you will not always be in range of a cell tower.

If you have a WiFi only iPad you will need an external GPS connected. The WiFi only iPads lack the internal hardware for GPS. (It saved them like $6 LOL) If you have an iPad that has the ability to use cellular it will have the internal hardware so you can use GPS with or without a cellular data plan.

Rank V

Stumbled upon Gaia GPS recently. Only have the free version at the moment and haven’t really got to go out and explore on it yet. Is the paid version worth it? I like that you can lay multiple map layers on it. I mostly would like to have it to keep track of all the National Forestry Roads and other roads that Google Maps simply doesn’t show